Golf

Padraig Harrington’s game slipped so badly last year that he failed to keep full status on the PGA Tour for the first time. He wrote letters to tournaments asking for a sponsor’s exemption and received one from every tournament but the CIMB Classic in Malaysia. The Honda Classic was the fifth straight tournament Harrington played, and he wound up winning in a playoff for his first PGA Tour victory since the 2008 PGA Championship.

By John O’Brien SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Paula Creamer ended a four-year title drought when she drained a monster 75-foot eagle putt on the second playoff hole at the 2014 HSBC Women’s Champions event and the American was keen to recreate a little bit of history on her return to Singapore. Back at the scene of one of her finest professional triumphs, Creamer was playing a practice round on the lush Serapong Course and could not resist dropping a few balls down on the 18th green to see if she still possessed the Midas touch. “I played the back nine yesterday and I went and putted it a couple times to see,” Creamer told reporters on Tuesday, recalling the moment she claimed her first title since the 2010 U.S. Open when she edged Spain’s Azahara Munoz in that playoff.

By John O’Brien SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Michelle Wie enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2014 when she captured her first major title and the American will spend the next 18 months chasing another dream — competing at a Summer Olympics. A teen prodigy, Wie was thrust into the limelight a decade ago when she competed against the men on several PGA Tour events but missed the cut in all of them and struggled to make an impact on the ladies tour after turning professional in 2005. Wie is targeting more major success this season but her main goal will be to tee off at the Rio Games in 2016, competing at an event she helped ensure became a reality as part of the team lobbying for golf’s inclusion as an Olympic sport six years ago. “Oh, yeah, I was actually in Copenhagen with the golf committee… people associated with the golf associations and we worked hard to get golf into the Olympics and we were very successful,” Wie told reporters in Singapore on Tuesday ahead of this week’s HSBC Women’s Champions event.

Even in the midst of a drought so long it looked as though Padraig Harrington’s best golf was behind him, he never stopped working. Harrington won the rain-delayed Honda Classic in a playoff Monday with a 5-iron that settled 3 feet away on the par-3 17th, a shot that put so much pressure on Daniel Berger that the 21-year-old rookie got a little out of rhythm and hit into the water. Not even Harrington was immune. It was hard to keep track of who was coming and going until Harrington posed with the crystal trophy.

Whether he was piling up majors or playing so poorly that he lost his PGA Tour card, Padraig Harrington never wavered from one goal in golf. His caddie, Ronan Flood, reminded him of that Monday morning in the Honda Classic when Harrington was four shots behind at the turn. ”He said, ‘Look, would you have taken this on Thursday?’ And I said, ‘Yes, that’s what you want,”’ Harrington said. He gave it back with a 5-iron into the water for double bogey on the par-3 17th.

Padraig Harrington’s drop down the rankings ended with a playoff win over Daniel Berger at the Honda Classic on Monday, the Irishman keeping those barren days out of mind during a thrilling final round. “I was not allowing my emotions to get away with me,” said Harrington, who had not won on the PGA or European Tour for nearly seven years.

Rookie Daniel Berger came from nine strokes behind the lead to enter a playoff for the Honda Classic on Monday but lost out on the second sudden-death hole to Ireland’s Padraig Harrington. The 21-year-old Floridian, whose father Jay was a professional tennis player, reaching the quarter-finals in the French Open and U.S. Open, is ranked 173rd in the world, but showed the talent and poise to suggest his maiden win isn’t far away.